was a little odd. But the reality of what she had done hit me later when the movie ‘A League of Their Own’ came out [in 1992]. Now I watch the movie with admiration, knowing who inspired it.” Cione was one of about 600 girls who played in the All-
American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). She was a remarkable pitcher and first baseman for five teams from 1945 through 1954. For two seasons, Cione played for the Rockford Peaches, the team depicted in the hit movie starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna. Although Cione didn’t talk much
about her baseball career, the impact she and the AAGPBL had on the de- velopment of women’s sports went far beyond the diamond. During the late 1960s, Cione helped women’s sports at Eastern evolve from club teams within the physical education department to a full-fledged athletic program. As a profes- sor of sports medicine at Eastern from 1963-1992, she mentored generations of students like Durak. Cione died on Nov. 22, 2010, in
Bozeman, Mont., at age 82. But the influ- ence she had on her teammates, students, colleagues and the thousands of women who play collegiate and professional sports continues.
Hometown Hero Cione was the consummate tomboy growing up in Rockford,
Ill. She earned a letter at Rockford High playing boys’ softball as an eighth-grader, but didn’t have the chance to play varsity sports since there were no girls’ teams. Cione was thrilled to learn in 1943 that Rockford
would have a team in the newly formed All-American Girls Professional Softball League (the league evolved to baseball by 1946). When the league held tryouts in the spring of 1945, Cione couldn’t wait to hit the diamond. She made the cut and was assigned to the Peaches. At age 17, the high school junior became a professional athlete.
24 Eastern | SUMMER 2011
athletics, but she was able to live her dream. It was unbelievable.” Philip Wrigley, then owner of the Chicago Cubs, created the
women’s league over concern that Major League Baseball might cease playing during World War II. Team owners felt women’s baseball would fill a sports void during the war. “At first, the league was a novelty—there was a certain
amount of sex appeal to women playing baseball in skirts,” says Jim Sargent (BS64), co-author of a forthcoming book about the AAGPBL South Bend Blue Sox. “But people left the games talking about the high quality of play. These were independent, strong-minded women who played serious baseball. They proved they could play at a level that ranked alongside the high minor leagues.”
“From that moment on, I was learning from and playing with
the most talented women softball players in the United States, Canada and Cuba,” Cione wrote in the foreword to “The Origins and History of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League,” published in 2006. “For two years, the Peaches had been my idols, now I was one of them.… Just think, in 1945, a young woman athlete was not only able to dream of competing at a very high level of
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